The Midnight Owl
by Rusting Tambourine
Summary: After a battle ended in the death of Lily's best friend, she tentatively returns to Hogwarts for her Seventh Year, and now Dumbledore is forcing all Seventh Years to take a muggle culture class. James is Gryffindor's male contestant in the final music competition, but who is Ravenclaw's female contestant, and who cast the patronus that saved the school in the battle? Ravenclaw!Lily
1. Memories Part One

**Author's Note/Some things that didn't fit in the summary:** Yes, this story is a little AU. Lily was sorted into Ravenclaw, and has always been rather shy. The confrontation with James after Fifth Year's O.W.L.'s never occurred and Lily's falling-out with Snape happened of its own accord when Lily finally got fed up with Snape's actions and apparent ideals. Feel free to ask any questions you might have if you are confused. Also, please review; I love receiving feedback (advice, reactions, favorite color… anything really).

**Obligatory, yet somewhat unnecessary disclaimer (I mean, this is a _fanfiction_ website, is it not? We would not be here if the original story was ours.): **J.K. Rowling is our queen. I am not her, and therefore the Harry Potter series and attached ideas, characters, and events are not mine. Only the plot (and some characters) are mine.

* * *

_"Lily! It's my turn, cover me!"_

_"I - I don't think I can, Clara. I'm exhausted; the patronus took a lot out of me. Just let me go get Alice or Dorcas."_

_"But the Death Eaters are retreating! We'll lose our chance!"_

_"We had our chance, and we succeeded! I think it's time to get off the roof and go back into the common room before Flitwick comes to check on us!"_

_The wind howled around them, and Lily took a step backwards to steady herself. It was cold on top of Ravenclaw Tower, so cold she could feel the chill in her bones. _

_"Lily, just one minute. You can hold a protego for a minute."_

_Lily could see Clara's pleading face, her eyes darting from Lily to the Death Eaters on the ground, who were scrambling to get away._

_"Clara, did you SEE that patronus? I don't have the strength for anything else!"_

_Pause. Lily tried again._

_"It's not safe!"_

_"It was never safe!"_

_"But at least we had a plan! They're going, they're scared, our plan has run out! The Aurors should be coming!"_

_Another pause. In the dim light, Lily could see that Clara's shoulders sagged. _

_"Oh, fine, let's go-"_

_FLASH._

_Lily's eyes widened as she saw her friend engulfed in a purple light. The tower trembled from the strength of the blast and shook them both from their feet. In a panic, Lily grasped the trap door in the roof, and reached out for Clara's hand._

_"CLARA! GIVE ME YOUR HAND!"_

_All she heard was gasps. _

_"CLARA!"_

_"I'm alright, just a little scraped! I'm holding on! Give me a second, I can almost reach my wand!"_

_"FORGET YOUR WAND, GIVE ME YOUR HAND!"_

_"I can almost reach it!" Lily heard some gasps and grunts and then suddenly, "There! Got it! Okay, here!"_

_Lily reached down below her, and felt around in the darkness for the hand being offered to her. She scrunched her eyes up tight and gripped the soft extremity. Her eyes flew open. The hand didn't feel right. There was something sticky and warm coating the fingers making it impossible to pull Clara up. Lily's eyes bulged._

_"Clara. Clara, please tell me this isn't what I think it is."_

_"I'm FINE! It's just a scratch!"_

_"I can't see it, and I can tell it's more than that!" Lily heard a gasp of pain as she yanked upwards._

_"JUST PULL."_

_But it was no use; Clara's fingers were sliding out of Lily's hand. A moment later, Lily could no longer feel the presence of her friend's hand in hers. She hazarded a glance down, tears already silently sliding down her cheeks._

_Below her, she could see a figure falling, falling, falling down to the distant ground. She couldn't tear her eyes away, even when she heard (perhaps she imagined the sound - Ravenclaw Tower being one of the tallest) the distant thud as Clara's body crashed into the earth._

Lily woke up with a jolt. Her guitar, previously resting on her lap, slid onto the floor of the train compartment, smashing the body and snapping two strings. She shivered, still feeling the chill from the previous June's battle.

"Are you okay?"

Lily started again and nearly fell off her seat onto her smashed guitar. She focused on her two friends in front of her in her train compartment.

Dorcas Meadowes sat nearest the door where a book lay on her lap, forgotten. Her long brown hair was shut between the pages almost as if she was using it as a bookmark, and her eyes were big, staring at Lily. Alice Fortescue sat next to Dorcas near the window, and on her jumper was pinned a shiny badge with the letters "HG" inscribed on the front in blue and bronze.

Lily considered lying. A simple "I'm fine," would have sufficed, but her friends would have seen through it immediately. These girls had shared a dorm with her since First Year, and knew her closely (if not as well as Clara had). So instead, Lily just settled with, "No. I don't think so," and bent down to retrieve her guitar. She turned it around in her hands for a second, surveying the damage, and then slowly waved her wand over it, carefully knitting the material back together.

Alice looked at her pityingly, and tears came to her eyes, no doubt knowing exactly what Lily was referring to. Dorcas looked around, not knowing how to respond, so she slowly opened her book and went back to reading.

"You know it's not your fault," Alice stated quietly.

"You weren't there! I should have had the shield up! I should have been paying attention!"

"You were exhausted. If anyone's fault it's ours for not forcing you to rest after you cast that massive patronus."

Dorcas looked up and interjected, "Are you ever going to tell anyone that was you? The prophet's been scouring the school trying to find out who cast it, and I'm sure I saw at least 20 Aurors questioning other Ravenclaws."

"I don't need the attention. I'm more than happy to let them come to the conclusion that Clara cast it on her own."

Alice raised her eyebrows. "Really? I mean, there were thirteen Ravenclaws who tried to claim that patronus - I counted. You're going to let them steal that from you, especially when you want to be an Auror when you graduate?"

"I… I'm not sure I want to be an Auror anymore. Maybe I'll just…" Lily bowed her head and went back to fixing her guitar, her red hair shrouding her face from her friends' views. Even without looking she could tell they were exchanging significant glances. When she said it, she knew they wouldn't believe her, and she anticipated the indignant questions that were sure to follow. She thought back to her summer, and quickly changed the subject.

"So, Alice, Head Girl? Does this mean you get your own room now? Are you going to abandon Dorcas and me to sleep alone in our slowly emptying room?" Lily meant it as a joke, she really did. It shouldn't have sounded so bitter, but with Clara gone…

Lily had been offered the position of Head Girl. She couldn't remember a time when she hadn't been working for it. Her grades were the best in her class, but only because she worked for it. Even with this ambition in mind, when she saw the badge alongside her Hogwarts letter in the bulky envelope, she froze. In the past when Lily had thought about being Head Girl, she had always thought that Clara Blackshaw would be standing there beside her to help her through the sudden influx of attention. Lily knew she would need Alice and Dorcas in the coming year, just to get through each day, so she had declined. She had declined so that she could spend each night near her close-knit friends. And now Alice accepted and left her behind.

Alice didn't seem to notice Lily's bitterness, but Dorcas shot her a questioning look, which Lily promptly ignored.

"Yes, I am. Get used to it," Alice cheerfully replied, "Anyway, you won't be alone; you have Sharon, don't you?"

Lily and Dorcas made faces at each other. Alice went on.

"Guess who I'm sharing with? You'll be jealous."

"The Head Boy?" Dorcas quirked a smile.

"Ha ha, Dorcas. Be more specific."

"Oh fine, let's see. Clarence Smithers?" Dorcas asked distractedly as she tried to pay attention to the conversation, her book, and Lily repairing her guitar all at the same time.

"Oh, shut up. Don't make me gag. If you don't want to guess, fine. I'm sharing a common room with James Potter."

Lily nearly dropped her guitar again, and Dorcas' mouth hung open, forgetting entirely about her book and Lily's guitar.

"I know, right? How great will that be?"

Lily was quiet. She continued repairing her guitar, but this time, her heart was threatening to jump out of her chest. Mentally, she chastised herself. She shouldn't fancy him. She couldn't fancy him, but this didn't change the fact that she did. She had for the last three years. Maybe it started when she heard him humming under his breath as he strolled past the Black Lake. Or maybe it started when she realized that he could light up any room with only his presence. However, if she was being completely truthful, she would say it was when she sat in the direct middle of the classroom, blending in. Unnoticed, she could observe how he smiled at his friends. He treated them as family - the family that Lily wished she could have - and yet, there was something else. She could see that there was something deeper there, and it intrigued her.

In the end it was Dorcas who asked, "Pretty great, but what about Frank? I thought you were seeing him."

Alice just laughed.

Lily gripped her wand tighter.

"I'm still seeing him, but he's off at Auror training. Who knows how he will have changed when he gets back?" With the last sentence, Alice's voice had dropped significantly. "What if… What if he doesn't -"

"Don't even think that!"

Both Alice and Dorcas turned startled to Lily, who they seemed to have forgotten about.

"You have a wonderful boyfriend who loves you very much. You should have seen his letters this summer. It was all 'Alice this' and 'Alice that.' There is no way he is forgetting about you."

It was true. Frank had taken the time to write all of them during the summer even though they hadn't really known him very well when he was at Hogwarts. He had always been "Alice's boyfriend." Lily imagined that he would be proposing as soon as Alice graduated.

Lily sighed to herself. What she would give for a relationship like that. She could imagine arms around her, but she had never felt it except from her parents. She could imagine holding hands and walking by the Black Lake with someone (something in the back of her mind whispered James), but she doubted that she would experience it soon, if ever. She had been imagining for the better part of three years. If she were asked what her biggest flaws were, first she would mention her inability to protect her friends, and then she would say her imagination. Her imagination hurt more than it healed, but she wouldn't stop using it. Not as long as she lived. Even though it hurt, it had saved her, and it would continue to.

"Thank you," was Alice's whispered reply, "I hope so."

Just then the train slowed and the girls began to gather their things. Lily struggled with her guitar case. She had learned last year that although trunks were transported to the dorms, the same could not be said for musical instruments, and as Lily had inherently objected to the shrinking of her guitar (lest it should distort in any way), she would have to carry it up to the school and keep it by her throughout the feast.

Lily was about to step off the train after Alice and Dorcas when a terrifying and lonely thought raced through her mind.  
"What is it?" Dorcas had stopped and looked back.

Alice, noticing that neither Dorcas nor Lily were following her, also stopped and looked back.

Lily felt like her knees were going to buckle. She couldn't move her leaden feet another inch, and she clutched her guitar case in her right hand so tight that her knuckles were white.

"I'm about to see a thestral," was all she said.

Alice carefully pried the guitar case out of Lily's right hand and took the hand in her own. Dorcas already was holding Lily's left hand. The three took a deep breath and headed off to Hogwarts as one for their final, Seventh Year.


	2. Memories Part Two

When James finally found the compartment in which his friends were waiting for him, he was starting to get frustrated. He had searched up and down the train twice, and only found the compartment because Sirius had been propelled through the door and was in the process of casting a reparo to put it back together again.

"Why did you have to make our compartment so damn hard to find?" Frustrated, James sighed as he sat down, pushing Remus' legs off of the seat. "What charms did you use anyway?"

"Witch-repelling charm," Remus said in a bored tone without looking up from his book.

Sirius and Peter burst out in loud guffaws as James grabbed Remus' book out of his hands and whacked him on the head, causing him to yelp. All James got in response was a grin to match Sirius'.

"No, really. I walked the length of the train twice - TWICE - looking for you."

"Well, if you hadn't gone and gotten yourself appointed Head Boy, you would probably have remembered your charm," Sirius added matter-of-factly.

"Charm? What cha- oh. That charm." James gave his friends a sheepish lopsided grin as they all broke out into laughter again. James climbed up onto the seat and reached up to open his trunk. He fished around in it for a couple moments until he found what he was looking for. He pulled his hand back and sat back down, slipping the little silver moon into his pants pocket.

"Remember that next time you want to see through our notice-me-not charm. Anyway, how did the meeting go?" Remus recovered from his gasping laughter quicker than the others.

"You'll never guess who the Head Girl is," James smiled to himself. There was no way they were going to guess it. He hadn't even known Alice Fortescue existed before she walked into the compartment. She was so short, he had actually almost offered to help her find her way to her friends before he noticed the badge on her jumper.

Sirius smiled mischievously and waggled his eyebrows. "Kayla?"

"Guess again."

"Belinda."

"Wrong."

"Susan. Kristi."

"Both wrong."

"Oh, I know! Sharon!"

Sirius' eyes were big, and he was so puffed up with pride that when James proudly shot him down with another, "Wrong again," he visibly deflated.

"What's the point in guessing? Will you even tell me if I guess correctly?" Sirius pouted petulantly, causing Peter to burst out into laughter again.

"Maybe."

Sirius stuck his tongue out and crossed his arms.

"Alice Fortescue."

The voice came from Remus, who was once again quietly reading in the corner. James grabbed his book again.

"How did you know that?" he demanded, "I didn't even know who she was!"

"Alice Fortescue? Who's she?" Peters voice piped up from where he had fallen onto the floor in the midst of his laughter. He made no move to get up, but merely made himself comfortable and opened another chocolate frog.

"Alice? That bird in Ravenclaw that Longbottom wouldn't shut up about all summer?" Sirius interjected.

"How do you all know her? I almost asked her if she was lost before I noticed the badge!" James was exasperated now. "And I know everyone in our year."

"Maybe all of the Gryffindors, but not necessarily the other houses," Remus interjected reasonably.

"I don't know, he knows some of the Ravenclaws pretty well," Sirius wiggled his eyebrows comically, only to get whacked by James with Remus' book.

"What I want to know is how she's Head Girl. I know there's at least one girl that's above her in rank…" Remus got a pensive look on his face.

"Well, you must be wrong, because whoever you're thinking of isn't the Head Girl," James continued.

"Obviously," Remus elbowed James in the side, making him drop Remus's book.

"PETER! GRAB THE BOOK!"

Peter jumped. He had been examining a chocolate frog card and mumbling to himself ("Dumbledore _again. _Why is it always _Dumbledore?_"), but quickly slid over on the ground and grabbed the book only a split second before Remus, whose hand met only air when he flailed forward. Unfortunately, Remus had so much momentum that he couldn't stop himself, causing him to keep sailing forward until his body met the ground with an unceremonious thud.

James couldn't remember the last time he had laughed so hard. Remus was lying on the ground on top of Peter, who was desperately trying to save his chocolate frogs from being crushed. Remus rolled around for a minute trying to find where Peter had hidden his book, while Sirius surreptitiously stole it from underneath the seat and placed it on the rack with the trunks. He gave James a thumbs-up matched with a grin.

James grinned back. He had been looking forward to this: all of his friends together once more. It was the way it was supposed to be. After the summer without Remus and Peter (both were out of the country), James was starved for their company.

It had been a subdued summer in the wake of the battle in June. James shuddered at the thought. Before the battle he never would have thought he'd say it, but Remus was lucky he was a werewolf that night; he wouldn't have to remember the things he had seen.

_James and Sirius were exhausted. They had just spent a grueling hour trying to herd an exceedingly restless werewolf back into the Shrieking Shack. The werewolf and the stag, dog, and rat animaguses had been tearing around the Forbidden Forest when Peter had heard the first telltale pop of apparition. Soon afterwards James and Sirius heard them too and quickly began directing the group back to the safety of the confined Shack._

_Now Remus was safe in the Shack, James and Sirius were headed to safety within the school, and Peter was Merlin-knows-where. James supposed that he could hide better in his animagus form than a stag and a large black dog, so he wasn't too worried for Peter. _

_No, it wasn't Peter he was terrified for. He and Sirius stood in the open beside the Whomping Willow, both too tired to speak. They could see flashes of light coming from the direction of the front doors of the Hogwarts._

_James felt a hand tug his sleeve, pulling him to the ground. His senses enhanced from adrenaline, the touch caused him to whip around and point his wand at the offending person's face._

_"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down there, James," a whispered voice reached him in the dark._

_James took a deep breath and lowered his wand. It was only Sirius._

_"It's beginning to die down." _

_It was true. The flashes seemed to be lighting up the sky less and less frequently._

_"Yes, but which side is winning?" The solemn look on Sirius' face told him that he was wondering the same thing. "Think it's about time to make a run for the doors?"_

_Sirius nodded and quirked a strained smile, "Maybe we can take out some Death Eaters on the way."_

_"Okay, then." James took a deep breath. "One."_

_He looked at Sirius._

_"Two."_

_They slowly got to their feet._

_"Three."_

_They started forward quickly, reaching the top of the hill (behind which they had been hiding) in a couple seconds. Both James and Sirius felt the cold hit them at the same time, and as one, their eyes lifted from their footing to the hundreds of floating, black-shrouded creatures descending upon the school._

_James looked at Sirius who even in the darkness seemed to have gone pale. _

_"Dementors," he whispered._

"JAMES!"

James started and shook his head in order to clear it. Remus had given up recovering his book and was now back on his seat, Sirius was smiling smugly to himself, and Peter was still sitting on the ground and had started opening another chocolate frog.

"What was that all about, mate? One second you were here, and the next who knows where the hell you had gotten to!" Remus exclaimed.

Sirius looked at James questioningly, but he didn't notice.

_That night, James had felt the freezing fingers of despair grip his heart. The dementors had surrounded them, their decaying faces leaning in close. James had counted about ten of them - Sirius hadn't been lucid enough to count properly, but at the time he would have said the number was closer to 100. They had been trapped, and neither of them knew how to cast a patronus. _

_James had given up; he sank down to his knees and hung his head. Later he wouldn't remember what made him lift it again, but the moment he did he saw a small white-blue light appear above one of the tallest towers. It flew upwards over the school and started to expand, soon becoming large enough for James to make out the form of a glowing barn owl. James was entranced as it opened up its wings and landed beside the school. The patronus was massive at this point: larger than the school. It took it's wings and beat them twice, tossing the dementors surrounding James and Sirius several hundred feet away. At this point Sirius was paying attention. _

_James and Sirius had watched in awe as the owl spread its wings wider and carefully wrapped the school in an embrace._

Sirius sighed, "He's remembering the battle, isn't he?"

"Again?" Peter added in disbelief.

"That's all he wanted to talk about over the summer. He kept talking about four figures on top of Ravenclaw Tower: three shielding the one who cast the patronus. If you ask me, he imagined it," Sirius sighed, exasperated.

"I didn't imagine it! It was clear as day! I just wish I had thought to look at the Map..." James glared at Sirius. "You were there, you can't honestly tell me you didn't see them!"

"I was a bit preoccupied with the dementors," Sirius quipped back.

"Four figures on the Ravenclaw Tower? Well, that would explain the Aurors' specific interest in the Ravenclaws," mused Remus.

"What?" Peter's, James', and Sirius's heads all snapped up.

"Come on. Don't tell me you didn't notice."

There was a pause.

"Really? How did you not notice the 20-odd Aurors swarming the Ravenclaw table during breakfast the next morning?"

There was another stretch of silence before Sirius said, "I… I just assumed that was because… because of…"

"Clara Blackshaw." James finished the sentence that Sirius hadn't wanted to complete. The name immediately put a frown on everyone's countenance. "I always thought that Hogwarts was the safest place during this war, but now…"

"Did you know that my mum didn't want to send me back this year?" Peter whispered from his position on the floor.

James whipped his head up from where it had begun to tilt down to shield his vulnerable eyes.

"She… She wanted to send me to Durmstrang, get away from all of this."

The four friends exchanged solemn looks. James couldn't imagine being sent somewhere else for his final year. No matter how unsafe Hogwarts had recently be proved, it still was home.

The train began to slow, and the four friends gathered their robes in silence. This was their Seventh Year, and they would go through it together.


End file.
